“I think we get better people by having officials that don’t make it full time,” Jones said. “When you only are officiating 16 games a year, plus the playoff games, it doesn’t warrant full-time officials.”

Ultimately, Jones said, he hasn’t noticed any difference with replacements, and he said he thinks that if there are mistakes on the field, instant replay should be able to get it right.

“I haven’t, really, because I can take any game at this juncture in any year and come up with criticism of the officiating,” Jones said. “It’s subjective in so many areas, and we’ve got in place a pretty good backup system now with our replays, and when it’s replayed. If anything, I’ve seen in a couple of our games the replay procedure needs improvement. . . . That has, in my mind, nothing to do with these replacement officials.”

Jones sounds like he’s convinced that the officials’ lockout could go on indefinitely without affecting the NFL. Something tells me he’ll change his mind if a bad call from a replacement official costs the Cowboys a game.

Why, because they are wearing the same white and black striped uniforms as the old refs? He should look at the game length stats. Even if the mistakes are a wash, the games and time it takes to call a penalty/ re-set the ball/ clock/ etc. are painfully slow right now.

“When you only are officiating 16 games a year, plus the playoff games, it doesn’t warrant full-time officials.”

Okay, so why do we need full-time players? Besides, he’s forgetting the 4 pre-season games they referee which makes it a total of 20 games plus their ongoing training and their travel requirements.

Jerry Jones was obviously put on Earth to make the Bidwells look reasonable and the Irsays seem honest. It’s great to know that his son Stephen is number two in command, so that the family can continue to run that team into the ground for many decades.

ive only watched three preseason games so far, and there are two main differences that i’ve seen. first – the officials take a lot longer and have to conference more. second – they let the players play a little more and throw less flags on holding and pass interference, which i find refreshing. as for bad calls, i havent seen much of a difference yet – keeping in mind that refs like walt coleman and hochuli have made a living blowing calls and not understanding the rule book. i wish both sides would get their act together – i want to hear about football, not the zebras.

No matter who the zebras are calls will be missed both ways. I think it might be nice to have fresh eyes in there. The current refs have gotten their heads spinning by over complicating things like possession calls. How many games have you seen the last few years where a guy makes a catch takes two steps and gets blown up by a db and causes a fumble which after a long review is overturned by a four minute explanation by hoculi how the catch and fumble everyone just saw really wasn’t a catch at all. Maybe the new guys and girl will bring some much needed common sense back to the game. Seems like the main problem has been clock management and time runoffs etc. I’m sure they can learn those rules.

“I think we get better people by having officials that don’t make it full time,” Jones said. “When you only are officiating 16 games a year, plus the playoff games, it doesn’t warrant full-time officials.”

So what Jerry is saying is that since his team plays 16 games and almost never in the playoffs, that they are not full time either… Oh that’s right, they have training camp. Guess what, so do the officials. This league needs full time officials with the help of instant replay! The only thing that he’s right about is that it has to be fair on both sides.

What are owners supposed to do? Support the locked out refs? Next thing you know, calls that probably wouldnt be called against you start getting called. Its suicide to do anything BUT support the scrubs refs.

Then again, I have an anti-union bias so maybe Im the wrong person to comment on this.

The replacements are definitely not as good, but they are good enough and getting better. I’m sure the league is reviewing every questionable call and working with the crews on areas that most need attention. They’re also reviewing performance, and will weed out any really terrible ones – especially since the union is not there to protect the low performers.

When I’ve watched or listened to the pre-season games, there’s rarely been much focus on the officials, except for fearmongering and making big deals out of minor flubs.

1) stating officials don’t need to be full time because they are only need for a 16 week season plus the playoffs is a crock and Jones knows it. It leaves off the obvious that officials work the preseason too. That’s 25 weeks of games. Full time refs would enable teams to have them at off season OTAs as well, at rookie orientations, and to have organized off season training camps for the officials as well.
2) Yes, many plays are reviewable, but not all, and coaches have a very limited number of challenges. Plus, penalties are not reviewed, nor are no-calls when a penalty goes unflagged. Jones of course knows this too.

This is all just posturing. It’s not about quality of officiating, which could obviously be made to improve. It’s about money, as always.

Almost every game that I have watched over the past decade has had its share of blown calls. To my knowledge, none of those contests were presided over by replacement officials. Let the officials union twist in the wind, the game will still go on.

Just wait until one of these refs blow a big call and cost a team a W… Then they will see.. I can’t wait to see what team is going to be the first victim.. b/c you know its going to happen!!

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That already happens every year with the regular refs though. In time these guys will be up to par, and arent coming in without any preconceived bias like the old refs. they are strictly focusing on making the right calls to keep their job

The same thing happens in every referee article. Someone posts something similar to this stupid comment: “Just wait until one of these refs blow a big call and cost a team a W…”, and then i reply with this same comment: “the old refs sucked and cost teams games. The new refs will most likely suck an cost teams games. Absolutely nothing is different (other than maybe the time it takes them to make calls, but that will get better as they improve).”

Just remember, the NFL wants extra crews so they can fire bad refs. They FINALLY want accountability, and fans have been asking for that for years. Have patience.

He didn’t see a problem with the Super Bowl he hosted at Jerry World either and look what that cost the league. I would say whatever Roger wants me to say to support his mistaken agenda so I could get back in his good graces to host another Super Bowl in Big D.

If it was my billion dollar product, I’d want the best and most trustworthy available. Maybe Cowboy fans should cheap out and stop buying jerseys. He’s perfectly willing to give you an inferior product and expect the same amount of compensation. Can’t trust a guy like that.

Ref mistakes will increase as the players round into regular season shape – the game will get faster and there will be much scrutiny.